Men of Heroes
by Hannibal Killed
Summary: A squad of Volksgrenadiers have stumbled upon a familliar yet odd world.(Company of Heroes X Men of War series)
1. Dimensional Transfer

**Author's notes: As from the summary, this is a crossover of Company of Heroes and Men of War. I'm not exactly perfect with my grammar and vocabulary so corrections in the reviews are welcomed. Also note that I do not know a German equivalent of some words, so you may also help me with that. So anyways, here is the disclaimer before the story begins. Disclaimer: Company of Heroes belongs to Relic Entertainment and Men of War belongs to Digitalmindsoft.**

 **"Volksgrenadiers, ready for inspection."**

As soon as that voice sounded, a squad of Volksgrenadiers came out of the Wehrmacht Headquarters. They moved on to the rally point and awaited orders from the invisible commander. It was a stormy day at the moment and they could hear the complaints from the tank crews of open-topped tanks, especially from the Marder tank destroyer of the ironic Panzer Elite which just happened to past by them.

"Ah scheisse, it's raining fucking heavily now. Well, at least we can enter the buildings for some shelter unlike the poor Marder over there," said the Unterfeldwebel, or simply the sergeant of the Volksgrenadier squad, Wolfhart. As the squad leader he is better armed with an StG 44 assault rifle while the rest only have K98 rifles until they receive their MP40 submachinegun upgrade.

Wolfhart sensed an order coming down and soon enough they began to mobilize towards their objective. He doesn't talk much while the rest of the squad members had a conversation or two while in the middle of the strong storm. Soon enough, they hear MG42s firing up in the distance with its menacing sound of a ripping cloth, inside a small town.

"Looks like we have a fight here, let's support that Heavy MG!" ordered Wolfhart and soon they met a scenery of a squad of Riflemen pouring down fire on an MG42 support weapon inside the building. With the bush covering their line of sight, one of the Volks threw a stick grenade on the adversaries, which killed two of them. The Riflemen made a mistake by shifting their fire into the bushes where they thought the Volks would be but the unsuppressed MG42 gunner soon laid hail of fire on them.

The pinned Riflemen squad began losing their numbers and as soon as two were left, they retreated their sorry asses. The MG42 support weapon had one assistant shot dead in the head while the Volks suffered no casualties in that little skirmish.

"Hey, Volks! Thanks for the help!" yelled the MG42 gunner from the building, waving at the Volksgrenadier squad. Wolfhart smiled as a sign of a 'you're welcome'.

"Hey Sergeant, can I have that American gun?" asked one of the squad members to Wolfhart while pointing at a dropped BAR in amongst the dead bodies of the Riflemen squad.

"It's pretty heavy, but sure, why not. What's your name, kid?" asked Wolfhart.

"Richard and I'm not a kid, sir." The rest of the squad including Wolfhart chuckled at that. Suddenly one shouted in excitement. The rest looked at the guy and it turned out he just received his MP40 submachinegun as a replacement to his K98. They facepalmed at his overreaction and moved on.

While on that, suddenly the whole squad's vision went white and after that, they literally disappeared from sight. An American Paratrooper squad which was about to ambush them got shocked from there.

"Lightning just struck them and they just disappeared?" said one of the Airborne in disbelief of what just happened.

 **Somewhere else…**

"Wake up, wake up!"

Wolfhart tried opening his eyes in tiredness, he could see blurred figures of somebody but could not make out who are they. After a few seconds his retina readjusted and he saw all of his squad members safe and sound. He raised his head and saw that they are now sitting in front of a small abandoned house, in a small village and not raining.

"Where are we now? Why is it not raining?" asked Wolfhart.

"We don't even know either," replied Richard, holding his captured BAR. Right now they're just sitting at the porch of the said house, basically doing nothing.

"For our own safety, we best stay here for a while until help arrives. In the meantime, why don't we introduce ourselves?" suggested Wolfhart, everyone else agreed.

"While in doing so…" said one while appearing to pull out something from his back. It was a jar of cookies he got from the kitchen of the house they were sitting at.

"Goddamnit I should have told you no looting is allowed among Volksgrenadiers, oh well…" said Wolfhart with regret. The self-introduction began with the MP40 guy.

"I'm Franz, and…" just before he said anything, Wolfhart cut him off.

"Okay that's enough, how about you two?" he asked while pointing at the two Volks holding K98 rifles.

"Bernhard."

"Hans."

"Oh, weren't you that one guy who makes the crappiest coffee in the Heer?" asked Franz jokingly.

"Shut up, just ask your mother to make you your own goddamn coffee." The whole squad laughed at the small fight. In the meantime, Bernhard handed over the last of the cookies to everyone in the squad and after the jar was empty, they moved out.

Then, they begin to hear the sounds of engines as well as the clanking of tracks in the distance.

"Everyone, take cover! We may not know if it's friendly," ordered Wolfhart. Then each member rushed to their own spot. The sounds got louder and the rumbles could be felt in the very ground. Then, out of the road on a hill leading into the village a Panzer III Ausf N along with an SdKfz 251 half-track following behind.

"Okay all clear, let's get up and meet them."

 **Author's notes: Like the base of the story so far? Stay tuned.**


	2. Clashing of Logics

**Author's notes: Nothing important to mention for now. Let's continue with the story.**

The small convoy paused in the view of the Volksgrenadiers. Then the tank commander of the Panzer III jumped out from his cupola to meet up with the Volks.

"Good cloudy day today sir," greeted Wolfhart. The tank commander carved a smile as soon as he heard Wolfhart's greet and they both got into a handshake.

"I guess that is the case for now, we weren't informed of any friendlies present in this village so we were honestly quite close to shoot you down." Wolfhart chuckled at the statement which crept the German tank commander out a bit.

"Anyways, do you mind us joining the fight?" asked Wolfhart, itching out to test a fight in this universe of whatever 'God', also popularly known as RNG, sent him and his men.

"Sure, ride on our panzer then." The tank commander's offer sounded a bit odd considering from where the Volksgrenadiers came from, because they never transported on tanks. The only ride they could afford were on half-tracks. They did it anyway by their instincts and experienced their first tank ride to battle.

"I could guess the soldiers in this world take this feature for granted," said Richard in a low voice in which he thought inaudible to the others. He was probably thinking how lucky they are to experience something this unique.

"I understand that feeling too, Kamerad…" replied Bernhard who happened to sit next to Richard. The convoy continued its adventures down the road through the small village. Combat was absolutely expected, so everyone kept an eye out for the surroundings.

 **A few minutes later…**

"Achtung, enemy Panzer ahead!" yelled the tank commander who was buttoned up looking for targets in the village. In the convoy's view was an M5 Stuart, which was an upgrade from the previous M3 Stuart especially in terms of protection, escorted by a squad of American riflemen. The Volksgrenadiers dismounted and the Panzergrenadiers got out of their comfy, and probably also stinky, half-track.

It did not take long for the Americans too to realize that they were spotted and took cover behind anything they could find, be it houses or simple wooden carts.

The Germans ran towards a nearby cobblestone fence and huddled against it which faced towards the Americans and began opening suppressive fire. The Stuart fires an AP round onto the Panzer III's hull but the buffed armour absorbed the impact. Of course the Panzer too was in a disadvantage only stacking High Explosive shells for its rather downgraded 75mm KwK 37 took from the early versions of the Panzer IVs. However this gave it a boost of damage towards soft targets such as infantry and weapon emplacements like Heavy MGs and AT guns. Given with enough range, it could perform indirect fire missions although with the sacrifice of accuracy.

The Panzer III returned fire anyway by firing a High Explosive shell. The shot missed but it hit a nearby building causing it to cover the Stuart in dust for a few moments. Using this moment the German infantry quickly advanced towards the next fence for cover.

"Richard, use that machinegun to suppress the Americans and so do Bernhard and Hans," ordered Wolfhart to his men. Of course the Panzergrenadiers were not that silly to follow orders from another squad leader so they just continued pouring down fire upon the Yankees.

After the smoke clears, the Stuart immediately fired on the Panzer III, this time towards the turret. Luckily for the crew, the shell hit the main gun and lost its momentum before it could penetrate the turret. The Panzer, now without its main gun operational, immediately attempted to suppress the Stuart by firing its coaxial machinegun at it. As ineffective as it looks like, any gunner would hesitate to look through the gun sight in fear of losing an eye to one of those rounds.

Meanwhile the infantry combat became increasingly tense as both are stuck within their covers returning fire to each other. Richard then complains about a problem the Volks have never heard of before within their original universe.

"Scheisse, I'm out of ammo and I can't reload." Wolfhart looked at him with a confused expression.

"What do you mean, can't you just check your pocket like usual?" asked Wolfhart.

"I just did that and I can't find any ammo," replied Richard. Of course, he was originally a rifleman so the only ammo he carried were rifle rounds and some machinegun rounds since that is standard-issued for the Germans. He looks around and saw a dead Panzergrenadier with a Gewehr 43 rifle by his side. Wolfhart grabs the rifle and gave it to Richard.

"You've got rifle rounds right? Then make this rifle sing." Wolfhart throws the G43 at Richard in which he immediately caught it and started firing at the Americans. Meanwhile, the suppressed Stuart attempts to fire back blindly which thankfully for the Panzer III, missed. This opportunity left the crew with no other choice but to withdraw to make quick field repairs.

This left the German infantry vulnerable and since they noticed the Panzer III retreating, they popped some smoke grenades and began splitting up.

"Oh, looks like they deployed some smoke grenades. Franz, you're coming with me. The rest of you, try to stay alive," ordered Wolfhart. After a while the smoke began rising and becoming bigger which allowed Wolfhart and Franz to move up from house to house. The Stuart began firing into buildings with its rather underpowered 37mm main gun hoping to get at least one of the Germans. The Volks and Panzergrenadiers managed to flank the Americans and began sweeping them out of their covers.

The Stuart has yet to be dealt with and it slowly began turning its turret to face the Germans behind it, before it could do so however, suddenly the turret was blasted out of the Stuart's hull by an explosion. Turns out, it was the Panzer III which retreated just now and managed to repair its main gun.

The short skirmish was over leaving around two Americans retreating while the rest of a total number of 9 Yankees killed. The Germans also lost two Panzergrenadiers but for the kills they got, it was worth it. The Germans took notice of a nearby flag point, which was crucially needed to call in reinforcements of all kinds. They halted their advanced and began building light defenses around the flag point.


	3. Rest for a while

**Author's notes: Well, that was the first skirmish of the Volksgrenadiers. They are now slowly adapting to the new world they are in. Stay tuned as they get revealed of newer stuff and game mechanics of the oddly more realistic world.**

And so after the small skirmish, they decided to rest a while together and have some talk.

"Man, that was a nice fight, can't believe I could actually run out of ammunition," said Richard when he remembered that critical moment of the fight. He was still lucky to have a G43 to fight back but after the skirmish he discarded it and still kept the BAR.

"We know you love that gun, but how are we going to find the ammo for it?" asked Hans. The squad who were sitting on basically fallen trees and some big stones thought for ideas. Wolfhart then remembered something.

"If you ever seen the Panzer Elite in combat, they always have this unarmed half-track they bring along which provides combat bonus to nearby infantry and support weapons. I think you can get your ammo roughly the same way," suggested Wolfhart. Everybody else nodded suggesting that Wolfhart might have a good point.

"Still, I don't see anything here that can supply us. Let's just wait until reinforcements come by," said Franz in a quite disappointing tone. So, they continued to fill time with their chit-chats.

 **A few minutes later…**

Soon, they heard the rumbling sounds of an engine. The distinct 'crispiness' of the engine's rumble made it obvious to them what it was.

"Seems like a truck," said Bernhard confidently. As accurate as his prediction, it was. The truck, an Opel Blitz, was towing a 75mm Pak 40 anti-tank gun, capable of penetrating most Allied tanks frontally. Behind the truck were another Opel Blitz and a Panzer IV Ausf H, escorting the convoy. German infantry began pouring out of the trucks and spread out to fill defenses surrounding the flag point.

"Hey look, our allies from earlier are nearing the truck. Maybe they're refilling just like you said, Wolfhart," said Bernhard.

"Well, let's not take any longer," and thus they ran towards the truck. When they stood near, Richard felt something weighing down his pocket. He checked and there it was, a magazine for his BAR. The others too got the ammunition for their weapons but Hans got something a bit more special: Two Panzerfausts. A cheap (in a militaristic sense), one-use weapon but absolutely deadly against enemy armour if in the hands of a skilled shooter of the said weapon.

Other than that, they got bandages in case of any wounds and a couple of 'Potato Mashers' to flush out the enemy from their covers. After they were sure everything was filled, they began to walk away before they heard something opening up. They turned around and see the tank commander from earlier, in his new tank.

"Oh hey, you're the ones from the recent battle! Thanks for distracting the enemy panzer's fire," said the tank commander. Wolfhart and the rest of the Volks smiled.

"What's your name, Kamerad?" asked Wolfhart.

"Ernst," replied the tank commander.

"Wlofhart. Understandable, have a great day," said Wolfhart in response. The Panzer IV then moved out to whatever location it intended. The Volks then returned to the fallen tree they were resting at before and took their seats. Franz nearly slipped but thanks to Hans he was able to stay on his feet.

"Thanks, man," said Franz before he too took a seat.

A few seconds of silence came among the squad members before Wolfhart spoke out.

"Well, if this round of the game ends and we will transfer maps, will we still be together you think?" The rest just stared at whatever direction they find comfortable and thought it. They started to get worried if they will be in this world forever, not able to meet their friends in the previous one. Then, a paper landed on Franz's face which made the rest chuckled. Instead of throwing it away however, he opened and read what was written on it.

"What does it say?" asked Bernhard.

 _Sorry for not sending this notification earlier but your presence in this alternate universe is the result of my collaboration with another 'God' although his name is classified for his sake._

 _Regardless, I intend to see your combat capabilities in this world which will have a whole different set of 'logics'. At a certain time, I will give the green light for your return but you may stay longer if you want to. You will not be under command of any player of this game so all decisions in battle are up to your making._

 _I will send you more letters in the future, stay strong._

 _Sincerely, RNG_

"Knew that son of a gun is up to something again," said Wolfhart, clenching his fist. Franz folded the letter and put it into his breast pocket. The rest of the squad could not think of any proper reactions so they stayed with their emotionless pokerface. Well, until…

 **Tuhmm!**

 **Whieeuuuuuuuuu…**

 **BOOOOOOM!**

The Volksgrenadiers were startled by the explosion and turned to the general direction of the blast.

"Scheisse, ARTILLERIE!" shouted Bernhard. The rest of the Germans in the village rushed for cover, either in the already half-demolished houses or the craters. In such a situation, every form of cover is essential because of dangerous shrapnel and shockwave. 9 more consecutive shells landed in the village before the barrage stopped and the dust cleared. Luckily, only three Germans were injured since the barrage was pretty much blind-firing but could be considered out of combat.

Then, an SdKfz 223 armoured car rushed into the village and met up with what seemed like an officer in charge who stood beside his Kubelwagen.

"Lots of enemy Panzers and infantry are coming into this village from the East! Four Shermans, one half-track and two trucks full of infantry." The Volks overheard the conversation.

"Damn, that's a lot. This town must be important or highly strategic," said Richard. After they finished talking, the officer rode on his Kubelwagen and drove to every defense point in the town, probably to inform the garrisons.

There were three routes into the village: The Northwest, East and the Southeast which was already secured by the Germans. Even though the enemy would come from the Eastern route, they could still use the forest covering the road between the routes to flank the enemy in a surprise ambush from the Northwest. Thankfully though, they had enough AT weaponry to cover both routes as well as a supporting Panzer IV commanded by an experienced crew, which is Ernst of course.

"Let's cover the other road," said Wolfhart.

"But they said they're coming from the East," said Richard in response.

"Even if the main force attacks there, we'll be in trouble if they split up and attack our exposed rear. Now let's move, quickly!"


	4. Hard Defence

**Author's notes: Now's the time for a second battle for theVolksgrenadiers. This time however, the opposition will bring out heavier weapons for a mass assault on the recently-built German forward base of operations.**

The sandbags the combat engineers set up were quite well-positioned and thus the Germans put them into good use. After every gun was set towards the expected direction of the enemy advancement, the Germans awaited. Their wait ended soon when they started to hear the lightly-rumbling that will make anyone who encountered the beast before frightened. Wolfhart nor the rest of his squad had a pair of binoculars so he just relied on his eyes to take a look on the enemy from afar.

"Two Shermans and a truck, which means the rest of the Yankees will attack here. Get your weapons ready," ordered Wolfhart. Of course they weren't the only Germans covering the route; there were around 5 more German infantry as well the Panzer IV waiting nearby in reserve. Although of course the forces were more focused on the Eastern route.

 **Eastern defence…**

The Pak 40 opened up which gave away its position, but managed to score a hit as well as de-track the leading Sherman. American infantry dismounted and took cover in the drain beside the road while the truck pulled out quickly. The hit Sherman was not down however. It only suffered crew injury and fired back at the Pak 40 with a High Explosive shell.

Thankfully for the Germans it missed and hit a house far inside the village, for the moment. The other Sherman however fired a shot on the AT gun and managed to take out the crew and damage the gun. The others rushed to man it and repair the gun. A Panzerschreck team came into the raging battle and took aim at the leading Sherman and fired.

The rocket of the Panzerschreck, having the highest value of penetration among other anti-tank rockets of the time hit the Sherman and blew up its ammo rack in a spectacular flame of sparks and burning gunpowder. Both sides got into a stalemate as the Germans did not bring any form of indirect artillery such as mortars to flush out the Americans from their cover. The second Sherman took cover behind the burning wreckage but was unable to fire its main 75mm M3 gun.

The stalemate will be broken however from another direction of the attack.

 **Northeastern route...**

The same rumbles were heard and the Germans, as well as the Volksgrenadiers prepared. Ernst's Panzer IV loaded an AP shell while his trusted gunner looked down on the sights. The awaited Sherman appeared and the gunner fired his shot without hesitation. After the dust cleared, only a rather big scratch was formed on the Sherman's hull despite the penetrating power of the upgraded 75mm KwK 40 L/48 main gun. Regardless, the loader quickly loaded another AP round into the chamber.

The Sherman advanced and behind it was another Sherman, but with a longer barrel for its main gun. Ernst then remembered the rumors and so-called 'warnings' about upgraded Shermans capable of taking down a Tiger tank frontally or withstand one of its shots. He concluded that it must be these two tanks.

"Gunner, take aim on the Sherman behind it," Ernst ordered. The gunner did so and fired on the Sherman behind it which was unable to turn its turret fast enough towards the Panzer IV. Ernst was not able to take the whole thing down but at least the turret was disabled. To his surprise however, the Sherman cleverly turned its entire hull to make its gun aim towards the Panzer IV.

It was at the moment Ernst knew, they were fucked.

 **Boom!**

 **Klang!**

Ernst was still alive breathing, along with his gunner and loader. They coughed in the dust of steel and when it cleared, the loader screamed out loud in a rather manly way. Ernst and his gunner took a look at what was the loader seeing and there, he saw the driver and the bow gunner. The former had his head gone while the other lost his left arm, both dead and soaked into blood. The shell made a hole on the front armour while the shrapnel formed from the penetration broke some equipment but barely missed the ammunition rack, thankfully for them.

"They might think we're already down, let's show them otherwise," said Ernst after he got back some boost of morale. The gunner got onto his seat while the loader slowly regained his spirit and loaded another AP round into the chamber. Ernst looked through the commander's cupola sights and he could see the leading Sherman slowly moving at the German positions while American infantry took cover behind it.

Luckily for the gunner the second Sherman did not move an inch thinking their surroundings were safe and sound. The gunner thus fired another shot. It scored a hit to the hull and was deemed decommissioned. The Sherman crew bailed and retreated to safety.

Meanwhile the left menacing buffed up Sherman slowly advanced at walking pace deflecting German bullets and shells like nothing while suppressing the Germans by firing back 75mm High Explosive shells onto their defensive positions. Richard occasionally tried firing bursts onto the Sherman's cupola attempting to suppress the tank commander's vision, while Bernhard with his accurate shooting picked off heads of careless Americans peeking out of the Sherman using his trustworthy Mauser K98. Of course, it was not just the Volksgrenadiers doing the job; the other Germans in the area did quite as well if not better than the Volks.

Finally the Sherman got close enough and Hans took out one of his Panzerfaust and fired. Despite how much armour the Sherman packed up, it could not defeat the penetrating capabilities of jet streams of hot molten steel coming into the hull and burning the crew in their steel coffins. The Sherman stopped moving and so did the American infantry following for cover. The tank commander waved a white flag from the cupola and when they saw the long trail of bodies left behind, the infantry too dropped their weapons.

As the Americans on the Eastern route witnessed the surrender of the Northwest Group, they fell back with what they had and although the Sherman fully exposed its back, the Pak 40 was not been able to be fixed on time while the range was beyond the capabilities of the Panzershreck and thus the Germans only picked off American infantry emerging from cover with either accurate rifle fire or bursts from their MG42s.

The Germans achieved victory with medium losses and the town was successfully defended. The defenders earned their rest as they took in around 12 Americans in captive as well as 2 Shermans, an Easy-Eight and a Jumbo to be captured and repaired.

 **Author's notes: So that's a tough battle for the Volks. There's still a long way for them to go unfortunately…**


	5. Africa

**Author's notes:** **AIGHT, so in the previous chapter, the Volks fought in the bushy lands of Normandy. Well now this time the map has changed and while we will still meet some old folks from the previous battle, we will also encounter new ones. Let's get on with it…**

Like before the Volks woke up from unconsciousness but this time it was different. The sun was blazing hot and then they realized they were in the wide open desert in an unoccupied defensive position filled with some trenches, sandbags and also a watchtower. Their equipment also changed, Bernhard and Hans still had their K98, but that was just about it.

Instead of the Panzerfausts now Hans slung a Panzerbüchse 39, an early-war German anti-tank rifle, instead of the BAR now Richard has an MG26(t), an originally Czech gun which was put into German service and inspired the designs of the infamous British Bren and the Japanese Type 99 light machine gun. For Wolfhart he now has a Beretta submachinegun, an Italian design which in reality was absolutely praised by both German and Allied forces for its sturdy reliability. Even some Germans would drop their MP40s and acquire themselves the said submachinegun. Finally Franz had a downgrade as well, from his MP40 to the MP38, which technically is the same gun except the later had a wooden stock which made sense overall considering the place they were battling in. Their uniforms also changed to cope with the sandy environment.

"Well, where the hell are we now," wondered Franz loudly for everyone else in the squad to hear.

"Obviously we're in Africa and this is quite a defensive position we're in. We should wait for reinforcements to arrive like before," ordered Wolfhart calmly based on recent experiences.

And waited they did, luckily there were some shady trees they could rest under in cover of the stinging sun of the equator. Their patience paid off after a few minutes when they see dust kicking up from afar. They kept their profile low for a while in case if it was the enemy, unfortunately after it became clear in vision it was. A Mk.II Crusader, a fast British cruiser tank mounting a high-penetrating 2-pounder (40mm) gun as well as two BESA machineguns, one coaxial with the main gun while the other in an independent turret mounted on the hull. Even though it lacks High Explosive shells to deal with enemy emplacements, the two MGs could still cause trouble for the infantry.

Hans took out his anti-tank rifle and aimed at the unsuspecting Crusader from a considerable distance, resting the heavy gun on the edge of the trench he was in. He fired a shot and quickly loaded another round located in the 'ammo rack' mounted beside the gun and fired again. The damage was not clear enough for them to analyze but smoke began rising from the turret before the crew bailed out. The rest of the squad finished them off under a heavy hail of small arms fire.

"Let's try and repair that tank," said Wolfhart.

"Wait what, we aren't pioneers. How could we fix that tank?" asked Franz with an illusionary question mark floating on his head. Wolfhart only grinned harder.

"Before last round ended, I saw a couple of ordinary riflemen, not tank crews or mechanics, repairing the downed Shermans. I think they pulled out a repair box or two to start repairing and I'm sure they themselves don't know anything about the mechanical parts of a tank," replied Wolfhart confidently. The rest could not really do much other than follow his thinking.

After they safely approached the Crusader Wolfhart climbed on and checked the turret. There it was, a dead crew member with his blood splattered all around the insides of the tank. Wolfhart called Richard for some assistance and both of them pulled out the body. Wolfhart entered the tank and exited with two repair boxes and handed them to Franz and Hans.

"Tell us anything odd," demanded Wolfhart. The two didn't understand what he meant but they tried to feel it.

"Well, we could sense the damaged parts of this tank and how to fix it just by our feelings," answered Hans.

"Well, go on then."

Both of them then climbed up the tank and started their work. Hans dealt with the damaged hull while Franz fixed the broken turret. The others kept on watch of the two. After some time, both wiped their sweat and stood up.

"Done?" asked Bernhard.

"Yep, it's now fully fixed," replied Franz as the two jumped down onto the ground.

"Alright, let's see if we can operate this son of a gun," said Wolfhart. This time the Volks fully complied and trusted their squad leader with high hopes. Surprisingly, Franz's repairs on the turret also made the interior clean of the blood from before. Franz took the driver's seat, Richard operated the hull machinegun, Bernhard became the gunner and Hans dealt with the loading operations. Wolfhart of course became the tank commander and finally found himself a pair of binoculars when he searched the previous tank crew's bodies for ammunition and other stuff.

"Let's meet up with our fellow allies," said Wolfhart.

"Lots of fuel, everything fixed and operational, we're moving out." After that small report Franz moved the tank at full speed. The ride was rough at first with the sudden acceleration but later on the Volks adapted their senses to the smooth movement of the Crusader's suspension moving on the flat sandy ground.

 **A couple of minutes later…**

Soon they made contact with some German tanks which were moving about, specifically a Panzer III F and a Panzer IV D. Then the TC (tank commander) of the Panzer IV greeted the Volks with a wave, which meant they already knew it was friendly even though they used an enemy tank.

"Hey kamerad, where are you heading?" shouted Wolfhart at the Panzer IV's tank commander.

"We're assisting an assault on a heavily defended British position, any help is welcomed."

And so, Franz turned the tank towards the direction of the Panzers' advance although controlled his speed so that they won't have a too far of a lead and get lost. Wolfhart had some minor chit-chats with the Panzer IV's TC to kill some time, leaving the Panzer III's TC lonely without any talk. Soon enough, they get a view of the raging battle. Smoke and dust were kicking up wildly, sometimes acting as cover for the assaulting Germans but casualties were racking up and the defensive position was yet to be conquered.

The tanks stopped but still out of proper firing range.

"Look over there, British panzers. They're the slow but tough kinds, sometimes referred as the Desert Queen, and we must stop them from flanking our friends," said the TC as he looked through his binoculars.

"Well, let's save them now," said Wolfhart. The TC nodded in agreement and informed the Panzer III's TC too. They moved out quick and try to flank the two Matildas. These behemoths although slow could ruin a Panzer squadron's day at its time. 78mm frontal armour as well as 65mm on the sides made it practically immune to any German weaponry other than the Flak 88. Its 2-pounder gun was also unmatched until mid-war when the Germans finally had more powerful anti-tank artillery and guns in their arsenal.

"Sir, it seems we have a bundle of dynamite in our inventory, we should put it into good use against the British tanks," reported Bernhard. Wolfhart felt grateful as soon as he heard it. He and neither the rest of the Volks knew exactly the purpose of such dangerous ordnance in a combat vehicle but they supposed that it may be used against obstacles such as tank traps that a tank might not be able to cross over or self-destruct the vehicle in an effort to deny use for the enemy.

"Hand it over along with a match if you could," replied Wolfhart. Bernhard held the dynamite bundle in his hands as he looked through. He found a box of match and handed it to Wolfhart.

"Since it's pretty obvious we cannot destroy the panzers with our weak guns we can at least try to use these to blast them. If anything I hope the other allied panzers can provide us with at least another one of these to use against the other panzer," planned Wolfhart and without even waiting for the comments of the Volks he emerged from the cupola to talk to the Panzer IV's TC.

"Hey kamerad, seeing as our guns are ineffective against the British panzer how about you use your gun to lob high explosive shells on the Brits? It may stun the crew members and buy me time to throw this dynamite onto their tanks."

"Extraordinary plan I must say, we'll try our best to help you," replied the TC before closing down through the cupola. Wolfhart however decided to stay up. Suddenly, another bundle of dynamite was thrown onto his face. He was about to explode in anger before he realized that it was the Panzer III's TC who provided him the essential object. The TC did not even carve a smile on his cold face as if he did that out of pure anger himself.

"Danke…" replied Wolfhart awkwardly. A few moments later the tanks got in optimal firing range and thus the Panzer IV fired the first shot, followed by the Volk's Crusader and the Panzer III. None of the shots penetrated the Matildas but it certainly stunned the crew members. Moreover, the Matilda's had a slow turret rotation which made the situation more in favour of the Germans. The Matilda beside it noticed the shots and begun rotating the turret towards the Germans.

Wolfhart lighted the dynamite's fuse and waited until he was near the Matilda. Another volley of shots were fired by the Germans and got the Matilda's tracks through the skirt armour. Using this chance Wolfhart threw the dynamite onto the rear of the Matilda. Without waiting he lit the second dynamite for the second Matilda.

However one of the Matildas was able to take aim and fired a shot at the Panzer III, scoring a successful penetration through the turret. Wolfhart threw the second dynamite and closed down through the hatch.

"Franz, turn away at full speed!" yelled Wolfhart.

"Jawohl!"

Seconds later, the first dynamite exploded, rocking the tank due to the strong shockwave. The second soon followed and did the same. When Wolfhart buttoned up he saw what he would expect, a pair of burning Matildas with one of them losing a turret. They saved the assault.

While the Volks cheered with their victory, suddenly Wolfhart remembered about the shot Panzer III. He climbed off and rushed towards the said tank. Out of the smoking cupola climbed out the TC, with his legs shredded by the shot of the earlier Matilda. The Panzer IV's crew soon came to help soon after their surroundings were clear.

The injured TC however remained calm with his same cold expression as he was evacuated from the tank. Other than the TC, the Panzer III's gunner was also shot with his head blasted off from the shrapnel, instantly killing him. A canvas was pulled out and was laid for the TC to lie on. Wolfhart returned to the Crusader.

"We got wounded, any of you got medical equipment?" asked Wolfhart. The other Volks looked at each other before shaking their heads in a 'no'. Wolfhart returned to the Panzer III's TC and kneeled down.

"You're going to be fine, kamerad. I'm Wolfhart, what is your name?"

"Nikolaus… and he's Patrik" replied Nikolaus as he pointed at the Panzer IV's TC. Patrik then took off his field cap and bowed down in respect.

"Wolfhart, I see you are new to this kind of situation but never worry. Despite dying we will always be redeployed when the time comes, it is merely the question of coincidence. Win the game." Those were his last words before he closed his eyes signaling his death under the shade of his Panzer III.

"I see…" said Wolfhart to himself while the people around him stayed quiet. Patrik only stood with hands inside his pockets while the Volks only watched by in pity.

"He's dead, we can't revive him. Let's move on," said Patrik as he climbed onto his Panzer IV. Wolfhart was about to do the same with his Crusader before he heard some yelling.

"Hey!" Wolfhart turned around to see a familiar face, Ernst. He was not alone as he brought with him another panzer crew. Ernst arrived in front of Wolfhart, panting himself with his crew.

"I see that Panzer III has broken down, did it lost any crew members? We may re-crew it now," asked Ernst. Wolfhart was quite surprised when hearing this because from where he came from, tankers always die with their tank no matter how badly shot at. Being a tanker replacement is like being adopted to Wolfhart.

"The turret's badly damaged while the tank commander and gunner died," stated Wolfhart as he looked at the shell hole the Matilda's 2-pounder gun left on the mantlet, probably still warm judging from the thin streams of steam rising from the hole. Ernst whistled in awe at the hole. "She's quite hit hard. Well, we'll fix her. Shouldn't take long though, we'll catch up later," said Ernst in an assuring way.

"If you say so…" replied Wolfhart before he turned to the Volks resting on the Crusader. He couldn't blame them though, being in a tank at microwaving temperatures is a hard thing to get used to when you're supposed to fight in Europe.

 **"Volksgrenadiers, let's get going!"**


	6. Grand Assault

Dusts kicked up wildly behind the Crusader as it followed along the within the Panzer squadron. Several half-tracks, trucks and armoured cars were also heading the same general direction at a steady pace. They bypassed a Flak 88 battery firing upon British positions accurately from a comfortable kilometer distance on the flat sands.

They could not wait for the barrage to finish as their mass assault relied on speed on a strategic level so that they could attack while the British are still recovering. The Panzers opened up firing on the bunkers whenever they could. The British responded with their QF2 40mm and even a few QF6 57mm anti-tank guns positioned in fortified emplacements along the defensive line. A few shots missed but managed to hit a few of the many charging Panzers, de-tracking them or damaging the hull.

Fortunately enough Ju-87 Stukas arrived in time to assist the battle escorted with Me 109s. Although the British had 40mm Bofors to hinder them, they were not available enough in numbers. First the anti-air gun emplacements were struck along with the anti-tank guns critically saving the Panzers from more harm. Trenches along the line were also strafed by the Stukas and 109s potentially killing a few Brits.

Soon enough the German infantry dismounted from their transports charged towards the defenses, taking casualties mostly due to mortar fire firing from within the trenches safely. With the help of the half-tracks serving as a mobile machinegun support team suppressing the British machineguns the Germans soon got close enough and began throwing stick grenades onto the British positions as much as they can.

The Volksgrenadiers' Crusader however got too close for comfort to the trenches and an N73 Grenade had landed on the rear compartment, killing the engine and setting it on fire. Wolfhart, noticing this shouted at his crew.

"GET OUT, THE PANZER'S GONNA BLOW!"

The Volks soon evacuated as fast as they could and thankfully the British were not able to take a shot on them as they got out the tank. The fire luckily had a considerably long time before it caught on the ammunition rack and exploded barely killing Richard as he was the last to exit the Crusader. The Volks panted in exhaustion.

"Well, now we're back as infantry. Let's do what we're supposed to do," ordered Wolfhart. The rest nodded and began clearing the trench in front of the now wrecked Crusader. Franz came up first with his MP38 and sprayed lead, killing two Tommies. The trench was linked to a pillbox which was still operating, before Hans threw a stick grenade into it killing the crew operating it.

On the opposite side of where the pillbox was, the trench seemed to lead into the ground. While Franz was dealing with the pillbox Wolfhart entered the tunnel without the rest of the Volks knowing. He encountered two British riflemen and killed them off, almost getting hit from one of their bullets. Wolfhart then found what seems to be an armory, or a headquarters, probably even both at the same time.

The bunker had a large table and on it were several documents and maps. On the wall showed the defensive line of the British detailing to the smallest bit including the explicit locations of weapon emplacements as well as tunnels. On either side of the walls were weapon racks along with ammunition, but what he was interested was a certain weapon left alone in the racks, a Lee-Enfield No.4 rifle (please read the note below this chapter) with a scope. Suddenly, he heard footsteps from behind. He took aim with his Beretta before Bernhard appeared, almost spooked by Wolfhart.

"Phew, I thought my heart stopped beating there. What did you find in there?" asked Bernhard, lowering his K98 to lax off his muscles.

"Just some maps, documents and a scoped rifle," answered Wolfhart, to which Bernhard suddenly widened his eyes. He rushed into the bunker before getting out with the scoped Lee-Enfield in his hand. He reloaded individual bullets into the rifle while laughing maniacally in a creepily joyful expression. Wolfhart was about the question his sanity, but then again no one in a war technically has it.

"Let's move on then," ordered Wolfhart. Bernhard responded with a "Jawohl" before they both exited the tunnel. At the exit, Hans, Franz and Richard awaited for them. Wolfhart looked around and saw the legendary Afrika Korps resting for a while on the now neutralized defensive line.

The Volks decided to rest for a while as they enjoy the vast sandiness between the bunkers and a town ahead a few kilometres in sight. Wolfhart looked through his binoculars searching for enemies while Bernhard did the same except with his newly-acquired sniper rifle through it's scope. For a moment Wolfhart thought he saw a mirage, but when he looked through the binoculars again, it wasn't.

A massive British force was assembling for a counter-attack. Wolfhart could only assume they were fresh enemy reinforcements, probably a battalion in size and an armoured one if his estimates were correct. Almost all kinds of British tanks were there, Stuarts, Crusaders, and to the misfortune of the Germans, Grants and Shermans since they had not packed proper anti-tank weaponry to take them head-on.

The other Germans soon were also aware of the situation and took cover in the trenches disregarding the pile of dead British soldiers lying in them. Every usable fire-support weapons such as HMGs, mortars and anti-tank guns were re-manned and redeployed or turned towards the general direction of the enemy. Panzers were re-positioned in suitable 'pockets' in the terrain where they could fire at the enemy while in the same time suffer less of a chance of being hit. They practically had no time to hull down so natural defenses would do for them.

If anything though, they were not expecting the British receiving reinforcements especially this big. It was sure the enemy commander was holding back his or her resources to initiate the massive counterattack. Still, if the Germans can manage to annihilate them, it would mean all that economic value would go wasted for the British.

Soon enough through the binoculars, Wolfhart spotted a lot of dusts kicking up which indicated the counterattack had started. Suddenly he heard what sounded like claps of thunder, in the middle of a desert no less where there's not enough water to accumulate and condense into thunderclouds, unless in certain times. There were no thunders…

"ARTILLERIE!" shouted a German soldier. Everyone rushed into cover since they were after all, in a defensive line. Half-tracks tried to reverse hoping to get out of the shells' way while tank commanders buttoned down and hoped for the best.

Shell after shell rocked the Germans. After 20 more shells the barrage stopped, and the Germans quickly rose up from cover. A few half-tracks and trucks were destroyed rendering them anything less than wrecks while a Panzer III was de-tracked. It also looked like one of the shells landed right into a trench blasting the unlucky Germans inside them into oblivion. The British were approaching them at a rapid pace with the Shermans and Grants covering the weaker tanks and infantry in the rear.

"Open fire!" At around 300 metres the Germans fired their weapons towards the British, not even minding what they were actually aiming after seeing how hopeless the situation looked. Panzers and anti-tank guns did not even care about the leading Shermans and Grants and instead picked off the weaker Stuarts and Crusaders in the rear. It was at this time Bernhard utilized his sniper rifle to the fullest capability dropping British infantry by every shot, two if he missed but it never took more than that.

There were no obstacles in the way of the British such as tank traps or barbed wires to delay their advance. For the British however this meant that there were no covers for infantry to protect themselves from. Soon the menacing Shermans were at the face of the Germans waiting to run them over, while the British infantry began clearing out the Germans from their defenses.

A Sherman was about to run over the trench the Volks were in when Hans threw a Geballte Ladung, an anti-tank or demolition weapon depending on how you use it with upgraded firepower by tying six more warheads onto a single stick grenade, onto the hull of the Sherman. When it exploded it punched a hole through the top armour, killing the driver and possibly injuring the bow gunner while in the same time damaging the main gun.

Richard relentlessly fired upon the British with his MG26. Although it was a different gun it gave off a similar feeling to his BAR, which made him feel better when operating it. Czechoslovakia is a pretty underrated country considering how much military innovation it had such as having the first standard-issued semi-automatic rifle and tanks that were a notch better than the Germans while having similar design features for their tactics.

The combat had quickly turned into a close quarter situation as melee engagements were becoming apparent. One by one the unmoving panzers were taken out by overwhelming British infantry with the help of satchel charges. Every trench was slowly being cleared by the British forces as the Germans' defeat came close.

Suddenly a loud boom from the rear sounded and before the Volks could register what it was, a Sherman got hit on the hull. A louder boom roared and this time the Sherman was completely blasted with it's turret sent flying before landing on a Grant. Franz looked behind and saw Tiger tanks, plural.

Two Tiger tanks, supported by several more Panzer IV Ausf F2s. Along with them were trucks, half-tracks with one equipped with a Flak 88, armoured cars with several non-armoured ones, and motorcycles. Reinforcements had arrived and they were almost late. The counter-counterattack was a curbstomp on the British as their armour were diminished by the feasting Tigers, unable to penetrate its front armour.

German infantry dismounted as their numbers by more than a hundred began regaining lost territory from the British. Trenches were cleared once again and bodies of Germans and British soldiers were piling up in them, sometimes tripping off the ones who were careless.

The trench the Volks were in was fortunately not under heavy attack and thus they were not killed in the brutal battle. The last shot fired and left an echo throughout the North African desert as the last of the limping and injured were captured and sent for medical attention by the Germans. The Volks lied on the edge of the trench as they watch the new reinforcements approached towards the town, probably the last holdout of the British before the round ends. A familiar face soon came to where they were.

"Ernst," greeted Bernhard who was the first to notice him. The rest turned their faces towards Ernst.

"Hello there kameraden, enjoying the view aren't you?" replied Ernst as he sat on the edge of the trench leaving his feet hanging. His torn uniform which also had burnt marks hinted something to Wolfhart.

"Did your panzer get destroyed again?"

"Yeah…" said Ernst as he scratched his hair, most probably in annoyance.

"And you survived again…" continued Wolfhart.

"The gunner I brought along earlier was killed this time, along with the rest of the crew," replied Ernst. His expression was left unchanged as if things like that were normal in that universe. It caught Wolfhart by surprise, which then made him decided that they introduce themselves for real.

"Alright then Ernst, maybe you'll think I'm insane but if I tell you we're from another universe, will you believe us?" asked Wolfart with his fingers crossed. Ernst took a good look at the Volks and raised his hand out.

"Got any cigarettes?" The Volks looked at each other for confirmation. It was quite obvious none of them carried any.

"Fine then," said Ernst as he walked over to a nearby body of a British soldier. He checked his pockets and found a box of what he needed, along with a lighter. He walked to where he was before and put a cigarette into his mouth before lighting it. He puffed out some smoke which sounded he was quite relaxed.

"Not quite all surprised. I can see how your behavior is quite the polar opposite what combatants here usually are." The Volks looked at each other confused. Ernst took it that they might need some elaboration.

"For one, the five of you always seem to be close wherever you go," Ernst said before pausing, seemingly as if intentionally waiting for Wolfhart to respond.

"Well a squad must stay together wherever they go. It's my duty as squad leader, and their guider to lead them to battle."

"There's no 'squads' in this universe, hell maybe an 'officer' wouldn't. Of course they do exist but they are just by name and equipment. Any Volksturmm can be an officer just by taking his cap, binoculars and Luger," replied Ernst before puffing out more smoke from his cigarette.

"The commander which is the player is in direct control of everything down to individual soldiers and the number of bullets they carry. I guess I'm lucky I only command a single tank. So, by his own will he can order Wolfhart to be in another squad, for example." added Ernst. The Volks nodded as they understood what he said.

"What's a Volksturmm?" asked Hans.

"They're the lowest of all units in the German army. Their 'training' would be how to operate weapons, and only that. They will have to figure out the rest in combat training on instincts, or maybe from a senior if lucky. Historically speaking they're quite full of child, female and elderly combatants although maybe the God above us decides it's best not to follow history too straightforwardly. So we have ordinary soldiers except they can't hit a standing Yankee at 10 yards with a machinegun."

The Volks were shocked at Ernst's explanation. Volksturmm technically meant "Storm People" and sounded intimidating enough. Was Germany really that desperate of manpower? Without them realizing, several Opel Blitz trucks had arrived carrying leFH 18 105mm artillery along with several Flak 88s just in case there was another counterattack from the British. As soon as they were deployed, they fired upon the town raining hell to whoever was on the receiving end, be it ordinary riflemen or tanks.

"You said you were a tank commander. Would you mind telling us why we can't see our hitpoints when we operated them?" asked Franz.

"Hitpoints… Well only individual infantry have them. The tanks or basically any vehicle don't and instead they have several parts that can be critically damage."

"But how do you make sure the vehicle is fully destroyed?"

"Despite all the complexity all armoured vehicles have a core which can render everything else the tank has useless if damaged or destroyed, which is the hull itself. The reason you can individually damage other parts of a tank is that so even with a weak gun you can still stand a chance, big or small. Another way to neutralize a tank would be to kill all of it's crew." Wolfhart then remembered that you could practically do the same from where he came from, but only RNG will decide if it will happen. As he thought about it, he remembered something.

"Do you have some sort of "God" that sometimes makes mortar shells fly like homing missles?" Ernst was nearly about the blow his cigarette out of his mouth before he laughed quite hard.

"I didn't expect your world to be _that_ insane. Well we sometimes have something similar only which he only decides the direction of the bullet travels. If you fire all over the place, then definitely your bullets will go everywhere. He won't make mortar shells home towards an enemy panzer because that is nothing more than illogical."

The fighting that went on in the city gradually slowed down as fewer cannon shots were heard. From such distance there'd be no way they can hear gunshots clearly. Their victory had been secured awaiting for the last batch of resistance to either surrender or face it's fate.

"Last question Ernst…" said Bernhard. Ernst naturally then turned his attention towards him.

"How many friends have you made as long as you have existed here?" That question probably had hit Ernst right in the spot judging from his change of emotions. His calculating eyes were saying,"Whatisa friend?"in a quite serious way.

Ernst raised his head to give his final answer, "I could say I knew a lot of Panzerman and I died quite a few times, just to clarify that I'm not a madman or anything because that is what I read on your faces. Mutual friendship other than panzer crews, very few. You could quite say I'm more interested in panzers than my own life.

So, I'll ask you back then. What kind of unit are you?"

"We are Volksgrenadiers," replied Wolfhart. Ernst thought about it for a second.

"Grenadiers and Volksturmm, between them would be you then. Lower grade of training than standard soldiers but have fighting quality above simple militias," said Ernst to himself under his breath. He was about to ask another question before he along with the Volks got the strange similar feeling.

"Oh god, I don't think this is what-" before Franz could finish his complaints, everything ceased to exist.

 **Author's notes: Regarding the sniper rifle, I quite have trouble remembering that specific British rifle which was most likely a Lee-Enfield, but with a 5-round magazine. Right now my Internet is severely limited while I can't play Assault Squad 2 for now as I am currently using a shit laptop, well at least for gaming. I found it from a mod for Battlefield 2 called "Forgotten Hope 2" where there are hidden kits around the map you can pick upand this specific British sniper rifle was one of what I am trying to figure out.**


End file.
